Down, up, and dirty

Oxfam Trailwalker started in 1981 as a training exercise for the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment in Hong Kong. It now runs 16 events in 12 countries. Here are participants in the Melbourne 2012 Oxfam Trailwalker.
Photo supplied by Oxfam Australia

by
Narelle Hooper

After running last year’s 100-kilometre Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker in 20 hours, Deloitte NSW managing partner John Meacock swore that was enough. Losing seven toenails, the skin off his feet and almost doing his knee persuaded him he had better things to do than hit the trail again.

But on the weekend of August 24-26, he and colleagues Jenny Wilson and Anthony Viel were back among 543 teams bashing through the bush on Sydney’s Northern Walk to raise about $2.5 million for the annual anti-poverty fundraiser.

“The last time, one of our team had to be carted off – dehydration – and the last two colleagues literally had to pull me through. This time we aimed to get everyone through," Meacock says.

Whether it is part antidote to a desk-driven life, part craving for nature or partial mid-life crisis, competitive endurance events are taking off. Of about 2200 people competing this year were teams from State Street Australia and Macquarie Group.

After a fourth team member was ruled out on the eve of the event because of fitness, Meacock’s AsOne team made it through relatively unscathed in 18 hours and 19 minutes. No Roads Expeditions, a mixed team of elite athletes, blitzed the course to record the fastest time – 12 hours 18 minutes.

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Oxfam Trailwalker started in 1981 as a training exercise for the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment in Hong Kong. It now runs 16 events in 12 countries, which have raised more than $100 million. It will add Perth to the list in 2013.

Then there’s the Kokoda Challenge, which began in 2005 and now attracts thousands of entrants. In July, almost 2500 people, including high school teams, slogged along fire trails and over creeks on Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland in a perilously muddy 96-kilometre challenge.

Participants do it in honour of the 39th Militia, the first Australian troops to set foot on the Kokoda Track in 1942. They carry their own food and water and have a 39-hour time limit. Athletic A-type personalities complete it in under half that time.

This year, the Kokoda Challenge has raised nearly $1 million to fund a program to help youths gain confidence and life skills. The next event will be in October around Mount Dandenong in Victoria.

Kokoda Challenge CEO Samantha Klintworth says endurance challenges are in demand as people crave the outdoors and want to try to get fit. “It gets them out of the office and gives them a joint goal outside of the business goal," she says. “That shared experience builds camaraderie and a sense of achievement in the team. It’s a very physical challenge, so there’s the element of ‘if we can do this, then, KPIs?..."

Keeping the fluids and energy up is hard work and the physical demands are tough. Then it’s also about the head and heart. For goal-oriented, baby-boomer fitness freaks, the mental strength that comes with age has its advantages, says Meacock. “You are out there on some stunning scenery – not that you have much time to look around. It is you and the team against the elements." He adds, “the only nice thing about running is you get home quicker".

Also going the distance, but at a walk in 29 hours, was first-timer Ian Martin, Australian CEO of sponsor State Street. It had four teams of 11 competing plus 60 volunteer staff involved. Martin remains mystified at those with the capacity to navigate the rocky terrain in the dark while at a run.

“It’s a real mind game," he says. “You’ve done 60 kilometres and at that point you’re pretty shattered. Then you think, I’ve got to walk another 10 to 12 hours; 40 kilometres to get home."